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The Worst Neighborhoods in Manhattan 2015 Edition

July 31, 2015

These bottom rankings might come as a bit of a surprise to you. But then you need to remember that this isn’t a ranking of the worse neighborhoods to hang out in in Manhattan. It’s the ranking of the worst neighborhoods to live in in Manhattan. And so having a great club scene doesn’t necessarily help out. At least not if a month’s rent could buy you a car or if the average building is falling apart. Here is AddressReport’s rankings of the 5 worst neighborhoods to live in in Manhattan.

5 Worst Neighborhoods in Manhattan to Live In

5. Union Square - Like many of the neighborhoods in the bottom five Union Square is a great place to hang out, but not necessarily a great place to live. It’s expensive and has a surprisingly high crime rate. It’s nice buildings and clean streets aren’t quite enough to offset those and it comes in as our fifth worst neighborhood to live in in Manhattan.

4. St. Nicholas Terrace - St. Nick’s Terrace makes this list for a different reason than most of the other neighborhoods. Its rent is way more moderate and it tends to be safer than the others. But, its buildings are known to have major issues. It is relatively middle of the pack when it comes to address complaints, but it is by far and away the worst neighborhood in all of New York City when it comes to apartment violations. Combine that with slightly above average rent and relatively high crime and you’ve got one of the worst neighborhoods to live in in Manhattan.

3. Koreatown - The buildings in Koreatown are in pretty good shape (certainly better than St. Nick’s Terrace anyway) but very high crime rates (especially for violent crime) combined with rent that’s much higher than average for Manhattan make it an unappealing place to live. Maybe you’re sensing a theme here. High crime + High Rent = Bad Place to Live.

2. Meatpacking District - Apparently the tiniest Manhattan neighborhoods are also some of the most polarizing. While Beekman’s low crime and great buildings made it one of the best neighborhoods in Manhattan, the Meatpacking District’s super high crime rate (believe it or not it’s statistically one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in all of NYC) couple with massive rents make it an unappealing spot to live.

1. Theater District/Times Square - Honestly it shouldn’t be a surprise to any New Yorker that Times Square and the Theater District ranked as the worst neighborhood to live in in Manhattan. High rent (although not as high as Tribeca), an influx of tourists (although that didn’t go into the rankings), surprisingly very very high crime rates, and a complete lack of greenery leads to Time Square being a pretty bad place to live.

These neighborhood rankings might not have fallen in line with what you expected for the worst neighborhoods in Manhattan. Check out our full list of neighborhood rankings here. And if you want to find out the specific reasons that your neighborhood didn’t make the best (or the worst) neighborhoods in Manhattan you should check out your apartment’s AddressReport to get all the data about crime, cost of living, building violations, and more!